Representing the candidates

Michael A. Carvin for Bush

Carvin served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Reagan administration from 1983-1988. His firm, Cooper, Carvin & Rosenthal, has represented Bank of America and Fleet Financial Group.

Known as a trial and appellate litigator, Carvin has argued several cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. He represented a group of private citizens who wanted to urge the justices to reject a Census Bureau plan to adjust its data to compensate for an expected undercount of minorities.

Carvin's other high-profile cases include his representation for Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, who sued a Democratic colleague, Jim McDermott of Washington, for allegedly distributing an illegally intercepted cellular telephone conversation between Boehner and then-Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Carvin received his bachelor's degree from Tulane University and his law degree from George Washington University.

David Boies for Gore

Known for his courtroom charm as well as his inexpensive blue suits and black sneakers, Boies is the smooth litigator who won the government's antitrust case against software giant Microsoft Corp. He most recently represented the music-swapping firm Napster in its fight to stay in business.

Boies often works without notes thanks to a nearly photographic memory. He once appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court without a scrap of paper in front of him.

A Yale Law School graduate, Boies took a pay cut to be the lead lawyer in the Justice Department's Microsoft case two years ago, agreeing first to $250 an hour -- about half his usual rate -- and then to a flat $104,000 annual salary.

Early in his career, Boies represented IBM in a 13-year antitrust standoff with the Justice Department. He cross-examined a Justice economist in that case for 38 days.